Bungie, Activision Sign 10-Year Publishing Deal

Game publisher Activision has secured a 10-year publishing deal for the next action game series from the creator of Halo, the companies said Thursday.

Bungie said that its next franchise is currently being developed by a team led by studio cofounder Jason Jones. Bungie will own the intellectual property, but Activision will have a 10-year license to publish all videogames created around that franchise, for multiple platforms.

The timing of this announcement couldn’t be better for Activision: The publisher is currently going through a high-profile spat with Infinity Ward, developer of its smash hit shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Following the firing of the studio’s heads, several more top-level employees have quit and many of them are suing Activision over alleged unpaid bonus royalties.

Activision might be losing the golden goose that laid Modern Warfare, but it now has the creator of Halo in its back pocket.

Bungie’s final game in its groundbreaking Xbox 360 first-person shooter series, Halo Reach (pictured), enters its public beta test on Monday.

Bungie’s next project is “well along in its development,” but Activision’s new deal with the developer isn’t intended to supplant Call of Duty, says Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.

The analyst says that Activision’s ten-year exclusive deal with Bungie around the Halo creator’s newest property resembles Activision’s past deals with id Software, where the publisher is “funding some or all of the development and getting first dollar payback and a healthy revenue share in exchange.”

To be realistic, the types of things that we have in store and the ambition and scope of this project is going to take the full might of our entire studio to bring this thing to life and to do it well.

And, of course, Sony crows over the Halo maker’s shift to multiplatform development:

Congrats to Bungie. Marrying their creative minds and incredible talent to the power of PS3 will be like giving PS3 owners Halo on steroids.